www.lbknews.com Friday, January 6, 2012 Page 9

other nations whose government debt now exceeds their total Gross Domestic Product.

We know better but choose not to. The Congressional Budget Office, the Treasury Department and the President’s own Office of Management and Budget have warned that our cur-rent level of spending is unsustain-able. Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, declared not only that the current level of spending was unsustainable but also that we were running out of time to fix the problem.

The president’s and Congress’s response to these warnings was a $1 trillion omnibus spending bill for fis-cal 2012. It was passed just before Christmas, possibly as a Christmas present to a complacent public. When you account for unemployment insurance extensions, emer-gency spending and Medicare physician payments, total federal spending will be $3.65 trillion in fiscal 2012. This is a slight increase from the $3.6 trillion in 2011. Only a slight increase might be considered a victory of sorts but it is now painfully apparent that our political leader-ship is in complete denial of what we know.

Meanwhile the rest of us seemingly choose not to know that Mr. Obama, Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell or Nancy Pelosi have absolutely no intention to curtail spending and reduce the deficit. Can anyone honestly say they expect this government to balance the budget and start repaying the $16.5 trillion we currently owe?

No one can believe that Mr. Obama and the rest are serious about the deficit when the U.S. Agency for International Development gives foreign aid to China. It is hard to believe, but we are borrowing money from China to give them millions to promote clean energy in their country. When confronted with this bit of fiscal

BURGUM

TOM BURGUMContributing Columnistburgum@lbknews.com

In denial of what we know

If there is a phrase in the English language that explains this dismal time of political gridlock, miscalcu-lations and deceptions it is “unknown knowns.” At least this is the opinion of Geoffrey Wheatcroft writing in Sunday’s The New York Times.

The phrase, “unknown knowns” is attributed to Irish commentator Fintan O’Toole, who expanded then-Sec-retary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s famous saying that, “There are known knowns…there are also unknown unknowns.” O’Toole believes that the heart of our cur-rent tribulations is the “unknown knowns.”

“What he means,” said Wheatcroft, “is something dif-ferent from denial, or evasion, irrational exuberance or excess optimism. Unknown knowns were things that were not at all inevitable, and were easily knowable, or indeed known, but which people chose to unknow.”

O’Toole is on to something. Our recent history is studded with things we have chosen to unknow. The housing bubble and subprime meltdown. “What kind of willful obtusity,” Wheatcroft asks, “ever suggested that subprime mortgages were a good idea? An intelligent child would have known that there is no good time to lend money to people who obviously can never repay it.”

That subprime lending is a bad idea might be obvious to O’Toole and intelligent children; it is not obvious to everyone. Just days before Christmas, the Obama admin-istration fined Bank of America (BoA) $335 million for not giving out enough low interest rate loans to minori-ties from 2004 to 2008. BoA seems to be paying a fine for not doing enough of the very thing that helped cause our financial meltdown. How smart is that?

As 2012 dawns some Americans are choosing to unknow the knowable about deficits. We are broke — broker than any nation has ever been. Just before Christmas we joined Greece, Spain, Portugal and the

KeyOpinion

insanity, Mark Steyn asked, “Who among us hasn’t bor-rowed money from his loan shark in order to buy his loan shark a hybrid?”

Life demands a penalty for not knowing what we know. Lend money to people who can’t pay it back and watch Lehman Brothers, any number of American banks and the government of Iceland implode. Many people were ruined in the Bernard L. Madoff fraud. As Wheatcroft notes, “Harry Markopoulos…back-analyzed Mr. Madoff’s supposed figures by computer. He spent nearly nine years repeatedly trying to explain to the Securities and Exchange Commission that Madhoff’s figures were not merely incredible but mathematically impossible.” The SEC chose to unknow what they should have known and the result was financial disaster for thousands.

Everyone is watching the drama playing out in Brussels as the European Union tries to salvage bank-rupt economies and save the Euro. Wheatcroft believes that the Euro cannot be saved, that it never could have worked. “That is, a single currency embracing countries as diverse in social culture, productivity, work practices and taxation as Germany and Greece, or the Netherlands and Portugal, is economically impossible without much closer fiscal and financial union.” Surely anyone could have known that at the time the Euro was introduced, it would become Europe’s own unknown known.

If unknown knowns are things easily knowable, we have a great cloud of unknowing hovering over us — a $16 trillion plus deficit and out of control spending. Most dangerous is the belief that a few wise men in Washington can somehow mange an infinitely complex economy better than private citizens managing their own affairs.

It seems it is time for us to know a bit more and unknow a bit less.

Two years or so ago I had occasion to look into the background of then-candidate David Brenner. At that time I engaged the assistance of a competent and trusted researcher. The following, which I include here verbatim, is what we found. It is all material gleaned from that publicly avail-able to any researcher.

From reliable research:David W. Brenner gradu-

ated from the University of Pennsylvania. He began his career at Arthur Young & Company in 1957. He was managing partner of that firm’s Philadelphia office from 1969 through March 1980 and retired from Arthur Young in 1983. Brenner served as director of commerce for the city of Philadelphia from 1984 to 1986 and director of finance for Philadelphia from April 1991 to December 1991. He also served as president of the Philadelphia Sports Congress from January 1987 to June 1994.

Brenner was issued a CPA license in Pennsylvania in February 1959. The license, which has no record of disciplinary actions, was last renewed in August 1983 and went inactive in April 1986.

In 1991, Brenner was appointed a director of Claridge Hotel & Casino; he was appointed chairman of Claridge in 1993. Claridge filed for bankruptcy in 1999 and was acquired by Park Place Entertainment in June 2001. Brenner was chairman of Claridge Hotel & casino from August 1993 to June 1998.

Robert Renneisen, president and chief executive

A few weeks ago I wrote a piece for this newspaper, which headlined this question. I did not answer it, but only used the question to lead into another thought. I don’t suppose that many were intrigued enough to ask further.

When composing that column I was tempted to answer my rhetorical query. I was tempted (that’s the right word) to note that David Brenner is the only sitting Longboat Key commissioner to attract an opponent for the election to be held in March 2012. That somewhat smart remark would only tell a small part of the story. We try to avoid smart remarks here.

The answer to my query was made easier a couple of weeks ago. David offered to provide a biography to the Town Clerk for her to provide to interested parties. That was a generous offer, in line with the spirit of open government in Florida. I have obtained that biography, dated Dec. 11, 2011 (tgranger@longboatkey.org email dated Dec. 12, 2011). It is rather impressive, relating the life of a Philadelphia professional. I wouldn’t dare edit it. You can read it. I’m sure his campaign will be making it available. Fine so far. This is an almost complete resume of a productive life, as far as it goes.

We all should understand that it is not required for a candidate for office here to provide this level of detail to the town or to the public. We do collect some info on appointees to the various town boards. That is on record here for Brenner, and is consistent with his bio. What might be important and of interest is what is not revealed. That may or may not be significant.

PETER O’CONNORContributing Columnistopinion@lbknews.com

O’CONNOR

So, who is David Brenner?

Just before Christmas we joined Greece, Spain, Portugal and the other nations whose government debt now exceeds their total Gross Domestic Product.

One might think that significant experience in the hotel — and gaming — businesses would be touted as germane to service in the government of a small resort community; maybe not.

officer, assumed the chairmanship of Claridge Hotel & Casino in June 1998; Brenner remained on the Board of Directors through 2001. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Aug. 16, 1999. Park Place Entertainment acquired Claridge Hotel & Casino in 2001 and merged operations with its Bally’s Atlantic City. As a result of a corporate merger in 2005, Bally’s (including Claridge) and Caesars are now owned by Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. In 2008, Harrah’s Entertainment announced that they would revive the Caesars Entertainment name, replacing Harrah’s as the corporate identity.

So that’s what we found; nothing particularly remark-able, maybe? Nothing was done with this information locally. That was my fault, eh? Is it worthy of note now? I don’t know, unless it departs from that which candi-date Brenner publishes about himself. Does it? It looks like what we have here are omissions. These omissions might be significant here. I, and maybe you, am some-what surprised that a modern gentleman would think that a 10-year piece of his life could not be rather sim-ply found and reported. It seems that almost nothing is secret anymore. Brenner must know this.

One might think that significant experience in the hotel — and gaming — businesses would be touted as germane to service in the government of a small resort community; maybe not.

We are engaged in a rather large hotel/resort redevel-opment project application here, aren’t we?

Wasn’t that the issue last election? Isn’t it now?Perceptions are everything. The voters can decide.